Hard to place a value on how Steve Jobs and Apple has affected my life. As a photographer and filmmaker, my work was completely changed in the early '90's, using the the first professional digital cameras, Photoshop 1.0, Avid Media Composer(and later, Final Cut Pro), desktop publishing, then revolutionizing how we listened to and carried our music. The digital age as we know it today simply wouldn't exist without Steve's drive to push Apple products beyond almost anything we could imagine. And other tech companies are still chasing after markets that Apple created from thin air.

One example of dreaming: I remember reading a John Varley short story back in the '80's and in it, a character was sitting at his kitchen table, using a 'newspad' to read his electronically delivered newspaper. I was impressed by that bit of neato future tech and, even though I was using a PalmPilot to do roughly the same thing years ago, the iPad is a perfect representation of that sci-fi fantasy idea brought to life.

Thanks for your passion, Steve. You really did change the world. I'll be celebrating that when I'm buying an iPhone next week.

Yep, this is sad, depressing news. As a lover, owner & user of Apple products since the time I first acquired a computer (I am cross-platform, but have *never* owned a PC, and, frankly, can't stand them), it is indeed a blow to the ingenuity of the race now that a true trailblazer is gone. I still have my issues with MP3s & iPods, but I'm a deep lover of my precious iPhone (it's my chief music-making tool), and, someday, an iPad shall be mine as well, after I upgrade my 'top, that is.

This has been a tough year of human losses, on many different levels & scales. Damn...

I'm sitting here looking at my Mac + computer. I haven't fired it up in 25 years, but it's here on the floor in my studio. I remember how much fun it was when I first got it. I think that's why I keep it around. Thanks, Steve.

« Last Edit: October 07, 2011, 01:07:33 PM by hdibrell »

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A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing.

I am saddened to hear of the passing of such a special innovator and entrepeneur, who has the type of fiercely loyal following that most cults could only dream of. I have a iPod, but do not have a iPad or iPhone, but only because I tend not to be attracted to new devices until I have a clear need for them. I was pulled into the PC world, not by choice, when I forced to learn it to perform my legal work. Word and Windows are kludgy, but I didn't think the world of WordPerfect 5.1 and DOS was that bad. When I became interested in algorithmic music in the 90s, there seemed to be far more small developers in the Windows area (at least in the tiny subgenre of fractal music), though I still enjoy pulling my old MAX program every now and then and running it on my still functioning MAC Performa. I am somewhat ambivalent about the impact of iTunes on the availability of digital music; sure, some revenue is better than nothing, but over the past 10 years, digital sales, at least in our small genre, do not seem to have replaced declining sales of CDs. I hope that Jobs' message of elegance and inituitive simplicity lasts well into the post-Jobs era at Apple.

Special post Mike......it touches my heart that in this world of icy cold techno-capitalism there is a purity of vision that works within the rape, rampage and pillage of our everyday world...sorry for being over dramatic but still and yet, that was a sales tool for apple that Jobs tapped into...a little techno-capitalistic madison avenue slight of hand.

Not so....that was a dreamer, who saw through it and still somehow brought the giant to his knees.

Stay hungry, Stay Foolish

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"Life is one big road, with lots of signs, so when you ride to the Roots, do not complicate your mind, ... " Bob Marley

I have just returned from a holiday in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and while I was there I finally managed to finish his autobiography. (I had started it about 6 or 7 months previously). The one thing that struck me about the book was that the same driving, uncompromising personality that lead him to achieve great things was the same one that took his life. He refused to be told what and how to do things - and that worked fine for his products but when it came to his health he took the same attitude - and that cost him dearly. An amazing man in many ways, but not without serious flaws and a deep-rooted insecurity.

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Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it - Mahatma Gandhi